A busy, busy day! We could hear the wind last night whirring by the top of the mast and flapping our Bahamas flag, but at deck level the wind was mostly blocked and C Ghost was held secure by our lines to the dock. We got up around 6:30AM and did boat chores until 9:00. Tommy started the fuel polisher since we just had new diesel put in, and the old had been sloshed around quite a bit with the waves and wind on our trip to Rose Island (in addition to the one bouncy night at anchor). Normally we don’t use the watermaker in a marina setting, but this marina currently has very few boats in use, likely due to the windy weather. We waited for new sea water to arrive from an incoming tide and made some water. Next, we picked up the marina’s courtesy car and headed off to the grocery store. The store was not yet crowded, and we buzzed around and bought a cartful of provisions. Fresh produce was in good supply and was more expensive than home, but not outrageous. Local brands of canned goods, drinks, and meats were comparable to home, even given the VAT tax, but if you held out for your favorite US brands: Clamato vs. Tomato Juice, Dial or Libbys vs. “Essential Everyday” brand, you could expect to pay a premium.

Paula now has meals to cook. Typically she will cook double meals: half to freeze and half for the next few anchorage days. Plans include making jerk and regular chicken, corned beef brisket, lemon shrimp, mac and cheese, green beans and plantains. Plus there are now fresh vegetables for salad, which we find ourselves missing a lot.

Once the essential cold items were stowed, we called “Get Me Ride”, an Uber-like service initiated by two enterprising young men. One of the owners picked us up, a friendly young gentleman named Leano Rahming. He explained that while their service was well-established on Grand Bahama Island, it was in the development stage here on New Providence Island. He is  busy driving, training drivers, and buying cars for the fleet. He dropped us off at our requested stop, right in front of 3 marine stores, and said he would be available to take us back. When we requested our ride back, he actually interrupted doing his laundry at his mom’s house to come get us! The service was friendly and inexpensive compared to renting a car or taking a taxi, and very professional. Plus our driver answered a bunch of questions we had about Nassau.

Of the three marine stores, one had already closed at noon. In the second, the clerk who approached us did not recognize the term anemometer and we could see the store clearly catered to power boaters not sail boaters. There was plenty of nice crossover gear, especially in the fishing department, and we window-shopped but didn’t buy. The third was essentially a dive shop, and it was there we got our fishing spear with the help of a young man named Rinard. He gave us an impromptu lesson on spear fishing for novices and guided us to some reasonably-priced gear that we could use easily.

We ate lunch at “The Poop Deck” a restaurant overlooking Nassau Yacht Haven. It was open air, but had clear vinyl shades cleated to the terrace as the wind was so strong. A sleek rock pigeon strutted the floor. It was ignored by staff and regulars and appeared to have a built-in French-fry detector. The minute a fry fell to the floor he rocketed to it- even if it fell behind him!

We had conch fritters with a thousand island-type sauce and grilled catch-of-the-day, yellow tail. Oh, and of course fries. Paula only fed the bird a little.

We then walked towards the two bridges crossing Nassau Harbor. Under one were lines and lines of individual conch restaurants, each about as big as a large shed and powered by its own generator out front. Closer to the harbor proper were boats where you could buy conch in bulk, pay to have your fish cleaned and a large open air produce market where Paula got her plantains mentioned above.

We then walked across one of the tall bridges, nearly getting our hair blown off as the wind was kicking. From the top of the bridge we had a clear view of both the cruise ship terminal and the Atlantis resort (featured picture).

We walked into the beginning of the resort area of Paradise Island, then headed back as it was getting on in the day and we wanted to get started on some cooking/projects. After Leano dropped us off back at the boat, Paula cooked the beans, plantains, and shrimp, washed sliced and froze strawberries and plantains and made ice.

Tonight we ate dinner in the cockpit while listening to the music from a wedding taking place poolside at the marina. It was “bits of everything” night for supper, with newly cooked shrimp, leftover pork and Brussels sprouts, and chicken fettucine from last night’s doggy bag.